The Charter of Fundamental Rights (Charter) is a powerful tool for the protection of rights across the European Union (EU). However, despite its robust framework, implementation is hampered by a lack of transparency and a failure to deploy all available tools. This, coupled with the European Commission’s slow and cautious approach, threatens accountability and puts its role as the guardian of the treaties at stake.
During the last legislative cycle there were some important developments. In a landmark judgment in the Commission v Hungary (C78/18), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) highlighted the discriminatory nature of Hungary’s 2017 NGO law and found a violation of a number of rights, including the right to freedom of association.
Further rights-based cases followed, including a pending case on LGTBQI+ rights and, under the new financial framework, the European Commission launched a novel funding stream, dedicated to enhancing skills and knowledge in litigating Charter rights.
With the start of a new legislative term this is a critical moment to build on these cases and more effectively utilise the Charter for the protection of rights. This requires a concerted strategy from monitoring, through complaints to infringement proceedings to litigation and the execution of judgments- and needs to be under-pinned by funding for strategic litigation
Signed by Amnesty International, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Civil Liberties Union for Europe, Civil Rights Defenders, Democracy Reporting International, Estonian Human Rights Centre, European Partnership for Democracy, Human Rights Monitoring Institute Lithuania (HRMI), Hungarian Helsinki Committee, ILGA-Europe, ), International Commission of Jurists, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (CILD), Nederlands Juristen Comité voor de Mensenrechten (NJCM), Dutch section of the International Commission of Jurists, Reclaim, Rule of Law Clinic - CEU Democracy Institute (Budapest) STARLIGHT Project (the Hertie School and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee), The Good Lobby Profs, TGEU (Trans Europe and Central Asia).
